The sound you just heard was me jumping into cyberspace (assuming you can hear splashes in cyberspace). I enter with reluctance and yet I’m starting to become curious about where this exercise will take me. As a public relations professor, I owe it to my students to keep them current on the profession and equip them with the skills they need to be successful. Social media is here and, darn it, it’s not going to go away! So, as the old saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. This blog is the result of an assignment I have given my students to enter the blogosphere. It’s only fair I do, too. Who knows, perhaps I will embrace it, as my friend and former PR colleague Bill Sledzik has — he also began his blog as a result of learning in order to teach.

I tell my students to blog about their passions, and I will take my own advice. As you hopefully have been able to tell by the graphics and tab names of this site, it is “dedicated to the magic of the road that lays at the end of the off ramp.” I LOVE road trips. I LOVE to drive. I LOVE going an hour out of my way to see the world’s largest something-or-other. I LOVE lingering at a bar I have found along the way and talking with the locals and learning about their part of America.

A special place of my heart belongs to Route 66. I don’t really know why I have been so drawn to it, however. Growing up, our family vacations were road trips to the East Coast, nowhere near the Chicago to LA route. It seems I just innately knew about the Mother Road. It held some sort of magic for me — a freedom I thought was waiting for me if I could just drive on the asphalt. Imagine my disappointment when I found it that it technically doesn’t exist anymore — that I would never be able to touch the magic. Then I found out that while it’s true you won’t find Route 66 on a regular road map anymore, that doesn’t mean the road isn’t alive and well. It is beckoning and the people who live along it are waiting for you. I know. I’ve been there.

I hope this blog will serve as a portal of sorts that will contain updated information about Route 66 preservation efforts, stories about other roads, existing and past roadside attractions, and my own road trip diaries. I hope you enjoy the ride . . .

Welcome to this crazy world of Web 2.0, kiddo. Your voice is welcome, and if you hang in around, people will actually begin to listen to you. Love the Rte. 66 road trip idea, and your first stop can be Chateau Sledzik on the north shore of Sandy Lake, Ohio! Hell, I might pack a bag and go along!